Fergus Hume

Mystery writer Fergus Hume was born Ferguson Wright Hume in Powick, Worcestershire, England, in 1859. His father was a doctor at a local insane asylum. When he was four years old the family emigrated to New Zealand, where his father founded the first private mental hospital in the country, and also began Dunedin College. Fergus graduated from a local high school and then attended Otago University to study law.

He received his law degree and was admitted to the New Zealand bar in 1885. That year he moved to Melbourne, Australia. He secured work as a clerk for a solicitor, but really wanted to be a playwright. Unfortunately, his only published works were a few short stories and he found it virtually impossible to break into the Austraian theater with such a meager resume. While talking to a local book dealer he discovered that detective mysteries were best sellers. He bought all of the works of Emile Gaboriau--whom the bookseller said was his most popular Mystery writer--took them home and studied them inside and out, intending to write his own best-selling Mystery novel and thereby get noticed by theatre directors.

The result of his efforts was "The Mystery of a Hansom Cab" (1886), his first and generally regarded as his best work. However, at the time he couldn't find a publisher who would even look at it. He wound up selling the publishing rights for 50 pounds, but kept the dramatic rights for himself. The wisdom of that move became evident when the book was turned into a play--written, of course, by Hume--and had a long and successful run in Australia and London. Hume later moved from Australia and settled in Essex, England. A prolific writer, he turned out more than 130 works over his career.